Structures of the kind now commonly referred to as geodesic domes were described by Richard Buckminster Fuller in U.S. Pat. No. 2,682,235 which issued about twenty years ago. The general character of geodesic dome construction and many illustrations of geodesic domes are set out in Robert W. Marks' book titled "The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller," Southern Illinois University Press, 1960.
In the early use of geodesic dome construction, large domes built to house exhibitions and displays attracted considerable attention and received a great deal of publicity. Smaller domes built in this period were mainly for military use and were not much publicized.
More recently, geodesic dome construction has been extensively employed in the erection of greenhouses of varying sizes, for example, by Redwood Domes of Santa Cruz, California. Still more recently, the great strength and low construction costs of geodesic domes has persuaded a number of people that a house does not have to be a box and has led to their introduction in housing construction. While geodesic domes have won some acceptance in housing construction, a considerable outlay in man hours is required for the erection of the framework of the dome when the construction techniques currently available are followed. A substantial reduction in this man hour outlay would assist in overcoming the public predilection toward box housing and would facilitate wider acceptance of the geodesic dome technique in the construction of homes and so would incidentally but importantly provide a means for meeting the growing need for low cost housing.